Of cruelty, chocolate and sparkly eyes
by SlytherinElektra
Summary: Set in the 7th book, Draco is supposed to torture Luna for inofrmation...but he he doesn't feel like it. Draco and Luna get to know each other, in the strangest situation.


He was definitely NOT going to do it. He should it, it should be easy for him. But it wasn't. So he decided he wasn't going to do it.

Draco had been asked to force some information out of Luna Lovegood about the golden trio's whereabouts, by any means necessary. It was, among other things, a test to prove himself to those who doubted his loyalty to the dark side, like his aunt Bellatrix. They were right to doubt him. He didn't feel a bit committed to their cause. As much as he wanted to please his father, as much as he had wanted to be one of them, he was no murderer, no torturer, no cruel and merciless minion of the darkness.

He was just very tired.

His father, his aunt, everyone seemed to have endless stupid tasks for him to do since he arrived home. And most of them he couldn't bring himself to do. The little contact he'd had in the summer with the dark lord had been awful, and had totally discouraged him. He only wanted to be left alone, forgotten. Not always trying to follow the orders of the death eaters while going against himself. Well, this time he wouldn't.

There was an amount of things he was not, but one thing he was. Clever. So he made a plan to NOT torture that girl while making the rest of the people think that he did.

Draco appeared in the cell with a solemn face and, with all the strength he could muster, took Luna out. He made sure to look cruel and violent in front of the other prisoners, so he wouldn't raise any suspicion.

"To that room, and be quiet!" He said, in his most threatening tone.

Once they were in his room, the one place where he was supposed to extract the information, he let go her softly and locked the door.

Luna was confused, not sure was to expect. She knew that her captors would try to get informations out of her (they've donde it to other prisoners) and when she was summoned she'd been scared. Scared and relieved at the same time, because Draco didn't seem as crazy-psycho as Bellatrix Lestrange or some of the death eaters that were in the house. Anyways, she prepared herself to be strong, to pain, and then...

When they arrived to the room where that horror was supposed to happen, Draco just let go of her (with a marked gentleness), locked the door behind him and sighed, looking defeated. Where were the threats? The curses? The pain and the screaming and all that? He cast a spell very softly and threw himself in the bed. He rubbed his temple as if he was having a headache. Then, he closed his eyes.

Luna didn't know what to do. Say something? Try to escape? She decided to enjoy the peace while it lasted, and started looking at the room she was in. It was very big and had enormous old-looking furniture. There were also a number of photos and posters, of Quidditch teams and famous wizards. But what caught Luna's atenttion were unmoving pictures, paintings. Some of them were landscapes (dark, lonesome landscapes like cemeteries) and others were just portraits of people. Luna recognised a number of Slytherin and Ravenclaw students among them. The paintings were amazing, and Luna thought there had to be enormous talent behind them, too.

"Where did you get these?" she asked, totally forgetting the torture thing they were supposed to be doing.

Draco, who was now sitting in the edge of the bed, looked at her curiously.

"That? Is nothing but trash... I didn't get them anywhere." he said "I made them."

Luna looked at him with a mixture of surprise and admiration. It was a nice change from the looks of disappointment and anger Draco usually got.

"I'm supposed to charm them so they move, but...I'm just lazy."

"I think the stillness gives them a very nice touch." Luna said, still looking at the pictures moving her head in impossible angles.

"Luna, can you come take a seat next to me?"

The girl, suddenly happy about being in a room with an artist complied cheerfully. She sat in the comfy big bed next to Draco.

"Would you do one of those for me? The portraits? Uh, or even better, you could paint a colony of Trambawocks migrating to the Wicket forests. I bet that would make a pretty painting!"

"You remember that you are my prisoner here, right?" Draco said, slightly amused by the sudden cheerfulness of his guest.

"Yeah, yeah... so that's a no?" she asked, just in case.

Draco smiled.

"Listen, I think you know why you're here" Luna nodded "Well, we both know that you are not going to betray your friends, so why not skip the bad part?"

"Sounds fine by me." Luna couldn't believe her luck. She must have Querguiren watching over her or something.

"But you have to promise one thing, one very important thing. If you don't, then I'll have to do those bad things we're trying to avoid here. You have to tell everyone that I was cruel and merciless. Everybody, absolutely everybody, even when you're out of here. I took you to my room, and everything was really horrible the curses, the pain, the cruelty. I've cast a spell that mimicks you screaming of pain and me doing... well, being cruel and merciless, so everyone outside is hearing you being tortured. We'll just say that your marks are covered by your clothes, ok?"

"I think, yeah." Luna said, trying to focus on the boy's words, and not on the funny way in which his grey eyes sparkled. But maybe it was too much too ask. "You have beautiful eyes, so big and sparkly."

"Luna, this is important."

"Yeah, yeah, cruel and merciless, marks under my clothes, very bad time. But I can't even tell my dad? I want to tell him about the still portraits. I bet they'd be a blast on the journal."

"There's a prize for you if you don't." Draco said "If you promise not to tell anyone, this" and he pulled a tray form behind him with a jar of milk and a glass and some chocolate on the side "will be for you."

Luna, who hadn't had a proper a meal in days, felt his mouth water instantly. She thanked the stars for making her so lucky and said:

"Yes, I promise not to say anything, you cruel merciless sparkly man!"

Draco was satisfied with this and handed the tray over. He lay on the bed again, just wishing he could vanish in the air and disappear. If someone ever found out about this he would be in a world of trouble. And there probably be a creative punisment, too... After having spent years being so proud and happy to be a Malfoy, he found himself wishing he was a mudblood. At least from a family that didn't follow direct orders from a superpowered psycho-killer, thank you very much.

"You look sick." Luna said, after drowning two glasses of milk and eating half the chocolate. "And pale." She stated, while she took another piece of chocolate. Draco looked at her, annoyed. Why did she care?

"I _am _pale."

"Not that pale...sick pale. Like if you were sick. You feeling good? You want some milk?"

Draco smiled at the offer. Yes, it was probably not genuine concern, but it was nice nevertheless. He decided to enjoy being with a nice person for once.

_"_"No, thank you. I just... I'm very tired of everything, really really tired... and my stomach hurts." He admitted, bored of trying to pretend it didn't.

"Well, don't you have to medicines for that?"

"It's not like that... I accidentally drank one of my father's poisons when I was a baby and... well, it left me with chronical pain. But it's a secret, this. I made my parents think it didn't hurt anymore so my father wouldn't feel so bad and so guilty around me. But it's just...it hurts."

Draco ended, not believing that he was pouring his darkest secrets to this odd girl he was supposed to be torturing. But she had promised she wouldn't say anyhting that happenned in that room, hadn't she? And somehow, he felt comfortable with her. With someone who looked past the names and titles and looked at you straight in the eye.

"I'm sorry about that." Luna said

"Really? I'm helding you captive in a dark room of my house that is filled by a bunch of death eaters and you're sorry that I'm hurting?"

"Yes." she simply said "But I'm friends with a lot of different beings, maybe I can ask them if they can help you."

"That's very nice of you, Luna." She smiled and poured another glass of milk.

"So, what are you planning to do when you finish school?" Draco asked, trying to deflect the conversation from himself. Luna seemed very happy with the question.

"Well, I'm thinking on going to live some time to the woods and/or beaches, not sure wich one yet. Listen to life out there, get to know it, study it, maybe be friends with it... And then, I could publish my findings in _The Quibbler_."

Luna pictured herself in a beach, listening to the sound of the waves and feeling the cool water under her feet. Feeling the sun on her face, the wind blowing... and maybe a plate of this delicious chocolate she was eating.

"I hope this war thing it's over by then. It's very ugly." She added.

"Me too, Luna, me too."

Draco tried to pull himself together. This petit break couldn't be repeated, or he'd be caught. He had to be a bad guy, an evil guy. There was no other choice. All his family, all his friends were. But then why he was suddenly wanting the light to win the war?

"Do you know that you have very beautiful eyes? I hadn't noticed until today, with all the darkness. It's like they were enchanted to shine more brightly."

Draco didn't understand. Why was that girl so nice? Why didn't she hate him? Why wasn't she threatening him with exposing him to get free, or get someone free or anything? She just sat there, and complimented him. And his paintings. She had complimented his paintings even if they looked muggle. That was something he didn't hear so often.

After she ate all the tray, Luna went to look at the portraits again, still amazed that they didn't move. Soon, it was time to release his guest, and Draco said:

"You should clean your face. Chocolate and cruelty don't match very well. You remember what you have to say, right?"

"Cruel and merciless!" she chanted, while cleaning the remnants of the chocolate "Although I had a very nice time today with the chocolate, and the paintings and the sparkliness and all."

"But you won't tell?"

"I promise. But... you have to promise something to me. Say that another time, when I'm not your prisoner, you'll make me one of those still portraits."

"Done."

Luna left, trying to act and as she'd been through a terrible time, but not getting too right.

At least, when she told Mr Ollivander that Draco had been cruel and merciless he didn't seem to believe her.

Maybe the smile on her face ha something to do with it.

A/N: I'ts just a little thing that iI had in my mind for a while. Please, if you like it (or not) tell me so! I'm waiting for your comments! You know you want to review!


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